The Journal's all-purpose sports report.

The Fix’s Baseball Preview

George Mitchell, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Brian McNamee dominated the offseason headlines, but they haven’t thrown a pitch or taken a swing this spring. Baseball’s opening day — which followed opening mornings (games in Japan) and opening nights (on Sunday) leaves behind the stars of the offseason steroids show, and ushers in welcome new storylines: New hope and a new name in Tampa Bay; a glut of outfielders in Anaheim; a prized new pitcher in Flushing; and a lighter team in San Francisco.

To preview the 2008 season, Jason Fry, Aaron Rutkoff, Jim Chairusmi, Stephen Grocer, Megan Ballinger and Joe Mantone offer links about all 30 teams. The senior circuit gets to go first, both because it’s older and because it doesn’t have the DH. Teams are listed in order of their predicted finish, along with their record and finish in 2007.

NL EAST

New York Mets (88-74, 2nd): An object lesson in believing your own hype, the Mets played below .500 after Memorial Day, admitted to reporters that they sometimes got bored out there, and then staggered through the second half of September, losing the division on the final day of the season. The team reloaded by replacing Tom Glavine — who spat the bit against the Marlins on that last day and then proclaimed himself “disappointed” but not “devastated” by his horrible performance — with Johan Santana, who might just be the best pitcher on the planet. That’ll help. But while the Mets have a superb young core (Santana, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, MVP-in-waiting David Wright, John Maine), elsewhere they’re putting a lot of faith in fragile graybeards such as Moises Alou, Carlos Delgado and Orlando Hernandez. And should they falter, or lose interest again, the peril posed by the Braves and Phillies might pale compared to the wrath of their still-angry fans.

Johan Santana

The Mets had a frustrating spring training — they won a lot of games while too many guys they needed to find out about spent too much time in the trainer’s room. But they also got to watch Santana carve up NL lineups, and enjoyed every Florida minute of it. This column by the New York Sun’s Tim Marchman pays homage to general manager Omar Minaya for that deal: “Trading for Santana at all would have dispelled the evil funk that has surrounded the team since it collapsed down the stretch last fall; getting him by giving up what Minaya did makes for one of the great moments in team history.”

Atlanta Braves (84-78, 3rd): After a couple of seasons away from their accustomed perch atop the division, the Braves are back with a talented lineup of young thumpers (Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, Mark Teixeira and Jeff Francoeur), some near-legendary veterans (Chipper Jones, John Smoltz) and a prodigal son in Tom Glavine, back where he always belonged. And they’ll be well-managed, as usual — Bobby Cox is every bit as smart as he is cranky. The question for Atlanta is whether they have enough pitching. Considering that after Smoltz and Tim Hudson their rotation features the now-ordinary Glavine, overpaid hospital chart Mike Hampton and youngster Jair Jurrjens, here’s betting the answer is “no.”

In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mark Bradley sees young Jurrjens as the Braves’ best chance to win a title before they need to rebuild that pitching staff, writing that he “could be the link between the aging staff that will squeeze out one more first-place finish and the new group that will keep this team in contention beyond 2010. … This could be Glavine’s last season, and surely Smoltz’s isn’t far behind, and how many different muscles can Hampton pull before he gives it up for good? Among the everyday eight, Chipper Jones turns 36 next month and Andruw Jones is gone and Mark Teixeira is probably going.”

Philadelphia Phillies (89-73, 1st, lost NLDS): Before the 2007 season, Jimmy Rollins declared his Phillies the team to beat, and then backed up every bit of that boast, banishing memories of innumerable Phillies teams done in by complacent clubhouses. The Phils will mash — Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and a resurrected Pat Burrell would be scary even if the Phils didn’t play in a ballpark the size of a suburban living room. Their pitching, however, suggests they might lose a lot of 10-8 games: Behind Cole Hamels and Brett Myers are the rather ordinary Kyle Kendrick, Jamie Moyer and Adam Eaton. And putting closer Brad Lidge — seemingly undone by a mammoth Albert Pujols home run in the 2005 playoffs — in an oversized batting cage of a park just seems cruel.

The Phils stumbled along this spring, annoying manager Charlie Manuel. A couple of weeks back, Jason Weitzel of the sublime Phils blog Beerleaguer reminded fans that spring training’s dramas are usually quickly forgotten, and concluded “bring on March 31. It’s totally worth remembering that the Phils open the season by sending Hamels and Brett Myers up against whatever second-tier duo the Nationals come up with. Ideally, and realistically, the buck stops there and you can forget about the Grapefruit League drama and its second-rate cast.” For extra credit, Deadspin’s Phillies preview teamed A.J. Daulerio and the Philadelphia Daily News’s Bill Conlin, with results that don’t have much of anything to do with the 2008 Phillies, but are pretty fantastic anyway. (Be warned: bad language, mature content.)

Washington Nationals (73-89, 4th): It’s only a slight oversimplification that the Nationals consist of Ryan Zimmerman, talented outfielders with bad reputations, ex-Mets holding vague grudges, and no one who right now looks like an effective major-league starter. Whatever they accomplish will be unaccomplished by that last point. On the other hand, they have some intriguing young players, an improving farm system and a beautiful new ballpark. That should add up to much brighter tomorrows … a bit down the road.

While waiting for those bright tomorrows, Nats fans also have the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell, a baseball poet and Fix favorite years before there was a Fix. Having Boswell to chronicle the Nats’ eventual triumphs will make them doubly or trebly sweet — and make the wait seem all the more worthwhile. And that day might not be far off, according to Boswell: “Perhaps this isn’t the breakout season, or even next year. What is different, almost incomprehensibly so for longtime fans, is that the Nats, as well as much of the rest of the sport, see their emergence as a 90-win team as a ‘when,’ not an “if.” Nothing like that has been the case since the elder Lerner [that's owner Ted] was 7 and the Senators went to the 1933 World Series. Since then the phrase ‘Washington wins the pennant’ has been something out of a Broadway hit — ‘Damn Yankees’ — rather than an actual memory.”

Florida Marlins (71-91, 5th): The Marlins have Hanley Ramirez and some promising youngsters, but it doesn’t matter: Anyone good will be sold off soon enough. Yes, it looks like the Marlins will finally get a new park, but you don’t have to be much of a cynic to wonder if Jeffrey Loria, one of the worst owners in sports, will run his franchise any differently come 2011. The Marlins are a joke, and not a particularly funny one. Baseball fans in Miami — and everywhere else — deserve better.

Tragedy, meet farce: The Dugout’s Jon Bois imagines an IM conversation between Loria and Ramirez. This one might have to be labeled “satire” to prevent future fans from mistaking it for the historical record.

NL CENTRAL

Chicago Cubs (85-77, first, lost NLDS): As the longest-running showcase of baseball futility enters its 100th year, Cubs fans should brace for something completely new on the North Side: back-to-back divisional championships. The 2007 team stumbled into the playoffs despite a month-long injury to high-priced star Alfonso Soriano and sub-standard performances from slugger Derrek Lee and ace pitcher Carlos Zambrano. Expecting bounce-back years from all three, the Cubs brass retooled for 2008 by adding depth to the team’s solid core, including versatile Japanese import Kosuke Fukudome in the outfield and veteran Jon Lieber on the mound.

The Cubs appear to be one of few teams with a bullpen built to withstand injuries. And that’s a good thing, too: Newly minted closer Kerry Wood, who seemed destined for Cooperstown as a rookie flame thrower back in 1998, is no stranger to the disabled list, as Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti reminds hopeful fans. The pitching rotation, meanwhile, might have depth without strength: “The Cubs won 85 games with basically the same rotation they’re going with this season, give or take a Lieber,” warns Chicago Tribune reporter Rick Morrissey. Believing that this staff has the grit for a 95-win campaign takes “a leap of faith that might require springs for your shoes.”

Luckily, the Cubs won’t have to do it on their own, since the team can expect help yet again from a division bottom-heavy with crummy teams. The forecast calls for October baseball in Wrigleyville.

Milwaukee Brewers (83-79, second): At the plate, the Brewers are as powerful as they are young. The astonishingly potent middle of the team’s lineup — comprised of home-grown studs Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart — could combine for well over 100 home runs. And Hart, at age 26, is the elder statesman of the bunch. Braun, who took Rookie of the Year honors in 2007 with his bat, should do less damage to his team with his glove this year. He was, by far, the most inept third baseman in baseball last year, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan writes, amassing the third-worst fielding percentage at that position in the modern era. Moving the ham-handed slugger to the outfield “wasn’t a difficult decision. The prospect of another Ringling Bros. show scared” the team. The Brew Crew added free-agent outfielder Mike Cameron to the mix, and his dependable bat should help round out the youthful team once his 25-game suspension for a positive test for a banned stimulant is complete.

Prince Fielder, left, and Ryan Braun

But the Brewers’ pitching is another story. Staff ace Ben Sheets hasn’t completed a season without injury in years, and the hurlers behind him in the rotation don’t appear to be any sturdier. Former All Star Chris Capuano was a mess in 2007 and now it’s unclear when he’ll be healthy enough to pitch again. Young gun Yovani Gallardo, who showed glimpses of greatness in his rookie season, is recovering from a knee injury. And then there’s the bullpen. In place of dependable closer Francisco Cordero, who decamped for Cincinnati in the offseason, the Brewers brought in Eric Gagne. As Tom Haudricourt and Anthony Witrado write in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, no one is sure if the once-great closer still has his best stuff because he spent a lot of time pitching against minor leaguers this spring.

Cincinnati Reds (72-90, fifth): The Dusty Baker era begins in Cincinnati with a lot of promising young talent, but not enough key pieces to build a complete team. Fans can look forward to a big step forward from the team’s horrid 2007 finish, powered by up-and-coming infielders Brandon Phillips and Edwin Encarnacion and veteran outfielders Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey, Jr. Dunn, who is in a contract year, should be signed to a contract extension as a result of his gaudy slugging and on-base metrics, argues the Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Fay. If the team falls back in the division, however, Dunn may be dealt to a contender in exchange for prospects.

The Big Red Machine will crank out runs reliably, boosted by a bandbox ballpark, but huge question marks hang over much of the pitching staff. After suffering through years of dismal pitching from weak-armed veterans, it looks like 2008 will see hot prospects Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto on the mound behind ace starters Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo. Unfortunately, as Cubs fans can attest, Baker has not always proved a reliable caretaker of young arms. Also uncertain is the Reds bullpen, the Enquirer’s John Erardi writes, a domain where “confusion reigns.” The endgame, at least, is clear: Closer Francisco Cordero, a free-agent acquisition from Milwaukee, was among the league’s best last year.

Houston Astros (73-89, fourth): How bad is the Astros’ pitching staff? With the exception of ace Roy Oswalt, few of the team’s hurlers are heading into the 2008 season with positive momentum of any sort. As the Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte reports, out of spring training the staff ERA was an awful 6.68. Veteran Woody Williams, deemed a possible “poster boy for the Astros’ pitching woes” by Duarte, gave up 21 runs over four spring training starts and was released.

The team is not without offensive firepower, essential given the pitching will be hapless. Hunter Pence, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee won’t disappoint audiences eager to see fireworks in the Juice Box. Rookie outfielder Michael Bourn could become one of the league’s premier base stealers. Still, the club’s biggest offseason move may have backfired: Shortstop Miguel Tejada, brought in to serve as an offensive sparkplug, brings with him sticky (and possibly felonious) steroids chatter. “If you take two or three giant steps away from reality, if you can get your mind in just the right place, you can see it all working out for Tejada and the Astros,” Chronicle columnist Richard Justice writes.

St. Louis Cardinals (78-84, third): How the perennial power of the NL Central has fallen! The Cardinals, who won the World Series just two years ago and had the division title in their sights for the past decade, have surrendered their powerhouse status in a big way. The Redbirds’ hopes for finishing above Pirates hang by a frayed ligament in Albert Pujols’s elbow. While noting that Pujols has swung a hot bat this spring, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Rick Hummel observes a lack of lineup protection for the team’s prized slugger: “One of the numbers to keep an eye on perhaps this year is how many times Pujols will be pitched to, with such veterans as Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds gone.”

The exodus that took Edmonds and Rolen from St. Louis also carried away shortstop David Eckstein and several pitchers. Meanwhile, longtime general manager Walt Jocketty was fired, and didn’t leave behind a ton of young talent for 2008. Post-Dispatch online columnist Jeff Gordon, in a hopeful mode, makes the case that Anthony Reyes is still an asset for a team that doesn’t know when ace pitcher Chris Carpenter will take the mound this summer.

Pittsburgh Pirates (68-94, sixth): There’s a new regime running things in Pittsburgh, with general manager Neal Huntington joining field manager John Russell. Post-Gazette columnist Bob Smizik sees things headed the right way for a change: The new leadership is proving itself “smarter than its predecessors, which might be damning it with the faintest praise.”

Maybe so, but any improvement over a dreadful 2007 won’t come from new talent brought to town with the new bosses. The 2008 Pirates look a lot like last year’s ineffectual bunch, which featured some sharp young pitching, including Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, but little offense. “The lineup is basically the same one that batted .267 — four points below the league average — and seldom saw a pitch it did not like,” the Post-Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic writes, in a piece looking for bright spots. One glimmer of hope will be in center field, where speedy prospect Nate McLouth will ride a strong spring to a starting slot. All Star slugger Jason Bay should be due for a bounce after an injury-hampered 2007.

NL WEST

Colorado Rockies (90-73, second, won wild card, lost World Series): The NL West is the most competitive division in baseball, with four teams finishing above .500 last season. The Rockies snapped a string of six consecutive losing seasons by winning 13 of their last 14 games to tie San Diego in the wild-card race. After rallying to beat the Padres in 13 innings in a one-game playoff, the Rockies surged to the pennant and promptly got swept by Boston in the World Series. This year, the Rockies are out to prove they’re here to stay. The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers writes that the upcoming season will go a long way toward determining whether Colorado’s young talent is as good as it appeared to be a year ago. Working in their favor, Rogers writes, is “a low-key front office and baseball staff that does things the right way.”

Rockies starter Kip Wells

Questions still swirl around the starting rotation, Troy E. Renck and Patrick Saunders write in the Denver Post. Jeff Francis has been the only starter to stand out this spring, but a deep bullpen and a lineup full of big bats bring reassurance.

Los Angeles Dodgers (82-80, fourth): This season marks the Dodgers’ 50th anniversary in Los Angeles. Kevin Bronson and Cindy Bertram of the Los Angeles Times write that although it has been 20 years since the team’s last title, the city’s love affair with the Dodgers hasn’t waned. “Maybe it’s the franchise’s lineage of colorful players, maybe it’s the allure of Dodger Stadium at dusk. But like sun worshipers to the beach, Angelenos are drawn to the grand ol’ game even as it has become big ol’ business.”

In an effort to reclaim past glories, the Dodgers hired manager Joe Torre, heading west after a 12-year run with the Yankees that featured four World Series titles, six AL pennants and 10 division crowns. Sean Deveney of the Sporting News suggests that Torre will need to “bring a little Yankees past to this Dodgers present.”

Arizona Diamondbacks (90-72, first, lost NLCS): The reigning division champs made a big slash this offseason by trading six prospects to Oakland for pitcher Dan Haren. By adding Haren to Brandon Webb and Randy Johnson, the Diamondbacks have built one of the deepest pitching staffs in baseball. But the team will need to score more runs if they hope to repeat last season’s success. Arizona won 90 games last season despite being outscored, cumulatively, by 20 runs in the regular season. (See Carl’s Numbers Guy blog post from last August on this anomaly.)

San Diego Padres (89-74, third): The Padres are on a run of four consecutive winning seasons, culminating with last year’s 89 wins, their highest victory total since 1998. Unfortunately, a late-season collapse prevented the team from clinching its third straight postseason berth and the season was viewed as a disappointment. Mike Allen of the San Diego Business Journal reports that season-ticket sales for the team’s 2008 season are down 11%.

San Francisco Giants (71-91, fifth): The Barry Bonds era is finally over, and all reminders of the slugger have been erased from AT&T Park. “The team’s new motto alludes to the sans-a-Bonds look,” San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler writes. “The motto is ‘All out all season,’ because ‘Now 240 pounds lighter!’ would have been too mean-spirited… Bonds has been erased. Even the grass he killed in left field has grown back.”

The Chronicle’s John Shea thinks the Giants have the players to go young. Older lineups, a given in the Bonds years, have gotten the team an average of 88 losses the past three years.

AL EAST

Boston Red Sox (96-66, first, won World Series): After two World Series titles in four years, Red Sox fans are daring to think dynasty instead of fretting about the next tragic October failure. The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy doesn’t want to hear it. “Since when do two championships in 89 years constitute a dynasty… astute fans with any kind of memory know how hard this is.”

Boston’s Manny Ramirez

Unlike the last time the Red Sox won the World Series, this time the front office kept the team largely intact. The Boston Herald’s Tony Massarotti thinks that can’t hurt.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona deserves a good deal of credit for helping to turn the Red Sox into October winners. He, after all, holds the record for the most Series wins without a loss in history (Boston swept the Series in 2004 and 2007). “But in an area where the football coach, Bill Belichick of the Patriots, is routinely regarded as a genius…the Sox manager does not yet elicit similar acclaim for his skills, despite a résumé as glittering as any manager the club has ever had,” the Globe’s Gordon Edes writes.

New York Yankees (94-68, second, lost ALDS): This was not your typical Yankees offseason. Not only did the Yankees fail to bring home the World Series trophy, but for the first time in more than a decade they failed to win the American League East. Did heads roll? Did the Yankees go on a spending spree? No and no. (Manager Joe Torre’s departure, while messy, was not quite a firing, and the Yankees refused to give up their farm system to acquire pitcher Johan Santana.) Now they’ll be relying on three young pitchers — Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain — to fill key spots on their staff, George King writes in the New York Post.

Perhaps the most significant change this year is the absence of Torre in the dugout. In his place will be Joe Girardi, who already has left his mark on the 2008 team. “It is a change, of course, though not a cut-and-dried one,” the Staten Island Advance reports. “Torre was a manager who protected his players — from trouble, from scrutiny, from attacks by outsiders as well as ownership. He was strongly loyal and prided himself on that. Girardi will probably bring that as well, but so far there seems to be something a little more pointed about the way he does it.”

Whatever else has changed under Girardi, the Yankees will be as prepared as they were under Torre. His replacement’s approach, his attention to detail, “is why Girardi does not envision any situation that will unnerve him,” Jack Curry writes in the New York Times. “He is ready to be compared with his predecessor, Joe Torre, on an hourly basis, ready to be criticized by his boss Hank Steinbrenner, ready to have his decisions dissected and ready to be booed. But, as much as Girardi insisted he was ready for those challenges, he was also ready to dream big.”

Toronto Blue Jays (83-79, third): For the past decade the Red Sox and Yankees have held a strangle hold on the American League East. This is the year that the Blue Jays hope to crash the party. And they could do so, at least according to the Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich.

It may well come down to health, and the Jays suffered a series of injuries this spring. “It really is time for spring training to end,” Jeff Blair writes in the Globe and Mail. “First, it was A.J. Burnett showing up with a torn nail on his right index finger after getting his throwing hand caught in a door. Then it was Casey Janssen tearing his labrum. Then B.J. Ryan developed soreness in his forearm. Now [Scott] Rolen.”

Jay’s closer B.J. Ryan, who was lost to injury for much of last season, and his replacement Jeremy Accardo are back. The starting rotation, led by Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett, should be strong, as well. “Pitching is the backbone of any good team and because Toronto’s pitching looks better, at least to these eyes, than either of their rivals, this might be a more interesting summer than most if not all of the past 14, depending on health issues,” the Toronto Star’s Dave Perkins writes.

The one big question mark is the offense. “Toronto is going to need a bounce-back year from its offense, which ranked 10th in the American League, scoring 4.64 runs per game,” Rick Freeman writes in the Times of Trenton.

Tampa Bay Rays (69-93, fifth): This may be the long-awaited season when the Rays finish with a better than .500 record. With B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, who will start the season in the minors, the Rays have plenty of talented young hitters. But the Rays have had talented young hitters before. So what makes this year different? Pitching. With Scott Kazmir and Justin James Shields plus the addition in the offseason of Matt Garza, the starters look solid. Then there’s the bullpen. “Yeah, this is better,” Gary Shelton writes in the St. Petersburg Times. “Finally, there are professional relievers in the clubhouse. Finally, there are résumés worth trusting. Oh, you remember. Watching last year’s bullpen was like staring at a nuclear meltdown. If you watched too long, your eyes tended to ache for weeks.”

Baltimore Orioles (66-96, fourth): The Orioles made a decision this offseason: Better to tear apart the team and start anew than to try to patch things up. Gone from last year’s roster are shortstop Miguel Tejada, pitcher Erik Bedard and outfielder Jay Gibbons; second baseman Brian Roberts may soon be joining them. One of the key players in the Bedard trade, center fielder Adam Jones, is standing out this spring despite his best efforts to fit in, the Washington Post’s Marc Cariq writes.

Jones joins Nick Markakis in Baltimore’s outfield. In just his third year in the majors, Markakis has already become the Orioles most-efficient hitter, the Associated Press’s David Ginsburg writes.

With the influx of young players that comes with rebuilding, a team needs a veteran player to take them under his wing. And that’s precisely what Melvin Mora has been doing this spring, Baltimore Sun columnist Peter Schmuck writes.

AL CENTRAL

Cleveland Indians (96-66, first, lost ALCS): Although the AL Central still looks like the toughest division in baseball, and rivals have bulked up bullpens and lineups in the offseason, it’s hard to argue against a team that’s almost identical to the one that made it deep into the playoffs last year. The Indians have ace C.C. Sabathia, who won the Cy Young award last year at age 27 — for at least one more year. He’s the reason Buster Olney picks the Indians to win the AL.

Right behind him in the rotation is Fausto Carmona, the 23-year-old phenom who won 19 games and didn’t flinch during the infamous midge attack, as Gatehouse News Service points out.

Meanwhile, after a 2007 season that was somewhat of a disappointment for him, sportswriters mused on DH Travis Hafner’s personality quirks instead of his platework. ESPN’s Amy K. Nelson notes the resemblance between Hafner and Javier Bardem, as seen in “No Country for Old Men,” while Anthony Castrovince, the MLB.com beat writer for the Indians, breaks the news that Pronk, as he’s fondly known by Tribe fans, was a Mathlete in high school.

Detroit Tigers (88-74, second): If there were a World Series of Hot Stove Baseball, the Tigers’ front office would have paraded a trophy through the streets of Detroit this weekend. An already-imposing lineup from 2007 now has All Stars Edgar Renteria and Miguel Cabrera penciled in, the latter signed to the fifth-largest contract in the history of the game. In the Detroit News, Lynn Henning chronicles the historic deal. With seven of nine spots in the lineup filled by one-time All Stars, the Tigers offense may be the best in baseball, and ESPN’s Amy K. Nelson says AL pitchers should be “on notice.”

Miguel Cabrera, right, and Maglio Ordonez

But there are doubts about the hurlers. The pickup of Dontrelle Willis was ballyhooed, but his performance in spring training was nothing to sing about. Without starting depth or solid middle relief, the Tigers are only a pitching injury away from finishing out of the money again. Meanwhile, Detroit News writers Vartan Kupelian and Mike O’Hara say it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have the spotlight shine on another team — namely, the Indians — and manager Jim Leyland agrees.

Chicago White Sox (72-90, fourth): “I evidently feel a lot better about the team than some of the ‘experts’ who are around,” White Sox general manager Ken Williams tells the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales. Nine players remain from the ’05 World Series squad, but last season was a disaster. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski hadn’t been on a losing team since 1994 before last year. “Everything just changes when you lose every day,” Pierzynski tells the Daily Herald’s Scot Gregor. “It makes it tougher to come to the park and it’s not as fun. But it’s over with and we have a new year.”

Like the Tigers, the White Sox spent money freely this offseason, adding Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera to their roster. Chicago’s starting rotation is thin, but it’s supported by an excellent bullpen, which added Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel. Closer Bobby Jenks is coming off of consecutive 40-save seasons, and no longer needs to pull out his 100-miles-per-hour fastball at each outing, saving it for prime situations. “I wouldn’t call it a message pitch now because people know what I can do, so I don’t know if it’s so much a message. … Ah, screw it, it’s a message,” Jenks tells Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.

But homegrown stars Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer aren’t going anywhere. And now neither is ace closer Joe Nathan. Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Jim Souhan explains why giving Nathan a $47 million contract made sense. Among Souhan’s reasons, the Twins are “signing a player who they believe still will be effective at the end of the contract, whereas Hunter and Santana wanted deals that their new teams might regret in three or four years.”

Management, meanwhile, is excited about one of the new additions — Hunter’s replacement in center field, Carlos Gomez, acquired from the Mets as part of the Santana trade. “He can ignite a baseball team; that’s what we’re looking for,” manager Ron Gardenhire tells Phil Miller of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. “We’re looking for people that can ignite us and get us to a level that everybody says maybe we can get to. Maybe he can do that.”

Kansas City Royals (69-93, fifth): Is there hope in Kansas City? Last year, for the first time since 2003, the Royals managed to avoid losing 100 games. New management and a solid bullpen could extend that streak to two years running, but with no standout sluggers, the team isn’t expected to compete in the AL Central. The Kansas City Star’s Joe Posnanski starts the spring with his 10th annual “Why the Royals Could Win It All” column. This year’s discourse takes the form of paraphrased quotes from Royals’ executives, scouts and players, who make some compelling arguments. Three favorites: “Executive: I think with David DeJesus, Mark Grudzielanek, Mark Teahen, Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Jose Guillen and all the others, we’re going to score a lot of runs. Player: I just think everyone on this team feels like we’re going to win, and that feels different. Scout: There’s a surprise story in baseball every year.”

Also, you just gotta see this, from Sam Mellinger’s blog about the Royals.

AL WEST

Anaheim Angels (94-68, first, lost ALDS): Hitting gets teams into the playoffs, and the Angels hope their five-year, $90 million investment in Torii Hunter gives them enough hitting to get there. Hunter — who didn’t have the best role model as a father growing up, as Mike DiGiovanna writes in the Los Angeles Times — also gives the Angels a fourth full-time outfielder. That means manager Mike Scioscia will have to rotate outfielders Vladimir Guerrero, Gary Matthews Jr. and Garret Anderson into the designated-hitter role — and Vlad is not happy about it, Chris Jenkins writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Scioscia will also have to decide who catches between buddies Jeff Mathis or Mike Napoli, Matt Hurst writes in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, and who’s going to fill the void left by Orlando Cabrera at shortstop: Erick Aybar or Maicer Izturis.

Still, Scioscia’s biggest concern right now is starting pitching, with John Lackey out until mid-May and Kelvim Escobar possibly done for the season. Reliever Dustin Moseley and youngster Joe Saunders should fill their spots, but the team is also looking forward to the future of Nick Adenhart. The Angels drafted Adenhart in 2004 knowing he needed Tommy John surgery, and he has been progressing, Bill Plunkett writes in the Orange County Register. However, after an inconsistent spring, Adenhart won’t start the season in the rotation. Jered Weaver and Jon Garland, acquired in the trade for Cabrera, will start the year at the top of the rotation.

Seattle Mariners (88-74, second): Hitting may get teams into the playoffs, but it’s pitching that wins playoff series. The Mariners traded for Erik Bedard and signed free agent Carlos Silva, but the biggest addition could be pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre. The pitching staff collapsed at the end of last season and “if the Mariners succeed this year with their huge investment in pitching, giving the staff keys to the guy who has been around the track might be the shrewdest move of the offseason,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Art Thiel writes. Bedard and Felix Hernandez could be the best one-two starters in the American League, and that would make the Mariners a difficult opponent if they make the playoffs. Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista return from last year’s staff. But Stottlemyre will have to find a way to bridge the gap to closer J.J. Putz.

Erik Bedard

Offensively, the Mariners need Richie Sexson to improve on his 2007 performance: a .205 batting average with 21 home runs. “He finished with his lowest on-base percentage (.295) of his 11-year career and his batting average was the lowest in the major leagues among players who accumulated at least 312 at-bats,” Bob McManaman writes in the Arizona Republic. Another question mark in the middle of the batting order is Adrian Beltre. The Mariners are hoping Beltre can again play through a left-wrist injury. He hurt it last June and needs surgery. He opted against the operation because “it was December when I found out about it. If I had surgery then, I would have missed a month now, maybe two. So I didn’t have surgery,” Beltre tells John Hickey of the Post-Intelligencer.

Oakland Athletics (76-86, third): Right now, the A’s roster doesn’t look like that of a 100-loss team. But if Billy Beane does end up trading pitchers Rich Harden, Joe Blanton and Huston Street, the A’s certainly could be playing like one by the end of the year. Beane started rebuilding with offseason trades of Dan Haren, the AL starter in last year’s All-Star game, and starting outfielders Nick Swisher and Mark Kotsay. The refreshing part of the moves is that Beane isn’t citing money as the reason. Instead, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times writes, “A rash of injuries last season exposed a lack of depth, and Beane decided to rebuild rather than take his chances on a full recovery from almost the entire first string.”

Still, starter Harden and shortstop Bobby Crosby — two key figures on this year’s squad — have been prone to injury. “But having them simultaneously healthy in recent years has been a rare occurrence,” Joe Stiglich writes in the Contra Costa Times. Another oft-injured player, third basemen Eric Chavez, is already on the disabled list, and center fielder Carlos Gonzalez didn’t make the trip to Tokyo because of a hamstring injury. Gonzalez, the top-rated prospect acquired in the trade for Haren, could start for the team when they open in Oakland; he hit .360 in 25 at-bats this spring. Another youngster inspiring optimism in A’s fans is first baseman Daric Barton, a player acquired in the 2004 trade of Mark Mulder to the St. Louis Cardinals. Barton can be streaky, though, as MLB.com’s Mychael Urban points out. In the minors last season, Barton hit .201 over a 39-game stretch in April and May but then hit .490 during a 24-game hit streak in June.

Texas Rangers (75-87, fourth): Better days lie ahead for the Texas Rangers, or so their fans hope. The team has top-rated talent in the minor leagues, but it’s not developed enough to land a big-time pitcher like Bedard or Santana. “Here is the reality of the Rangers’ farm system: It is loaded with talent. It is young talent. It is raw talent. Right now, it’s not the kind of talent that is going to land premium pitcher because prospective trade partners are going to want to see immediate returns,” Evan Grant writes in the Dallas Morning News. Instead, the Rangers will have to settle for the addition of two players with checkered pasts: Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley.

Those two, along with Michael Young and Hank Blalock, do give the lineup some ability to score runs, but the Texas pitching staff is already decimated with injuries. Kevin Millwood has a sore hamstring and Brandon McCarthy is on the disabled list. C.J. Wilson is also hurt (although his biggest problem could be finding a friend in the clubhouse after he insulted the intelligence of ballpayers, Grant writes.) Two young pitchers did impress during spring training. “Luis Mendoza looks like he’s ready for his spot in the starting rotation, and though Eric Hurley is going to get some more time in the minor leagues, it looks like he might just about be ready for the big time, too,” Grant writes, doing Fix triple duty.

Comments (5 of 16)

Again a “major news outlet" being unaware and unable to comment about sports west of Texas. You are either too lazy to investigate or just plain ignorant. This column has more about either the woeful Pittsburg Pirates or the terrible Houston Astros than it does about the San Diego Padres and the Arizona D-Backs combined! No mention of unanimous (only the 9th time it ever happened) Cy Young winner Jake Peavy (triple crown of pitching ERA leader, Strike out leader and WINS leader) just how season ticket sales are lower in SD. No mention of MVP candidate Matt Holiday one of the most exciting young players in all of baseball. Just caution about the pitching. LAZY and IGNORANT! This is the 1st and last time I will bother with your site. Oh yeah not one mention of the Dodgers potent pitching staff just talk about semi-retired Joe Torre. Retirement is why he’s on the west coast right?

6:43 am April 1, 2008

Basking in the Sun wrote:

Ooops--thanks. Well, whoever he is, he'll probably shut down the Sarasota Reds early enough that the fireworks show won't wake the Fiddlesticks residents next to the park. Now, back to the Red Hook.

12:34 am April 1, 2008

OHIO THEOTED wrote:

Orioles are rebuilding from the ground up.
No quick fix.
And get the farm system fixed, too.
This is the Oriole way.
Let's enjoy watching the stars rise.

9:33 pm March 31, 2008

Ryan wrote:

Moises Alou is a fragile greybeard? Wow that's an original argument.

I'm so sick of know it all sports writers repeating this year after year. Am I seeing things, or did someone just make up that he had a .341 average last year and a 30 game hitting streak, which also happens to be a record?

3:57 pm March 31, 2008

Who? wrote:

Nelson Liriano? Try Francisco. Have you had a few too many of those Red Hooks already?

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

Be sure to check your Daily Fix all week long. The Fix's daily rundown of the best sportswriting on the Web is joined by features such as The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Tell us what you think of the Fix at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com.